Endbringers/Spoiler-free
The Endbringers are monstrous beings that take turn attacking locations around the globe to cause as much damage as they possibly can. Apparently unkillable, the Endbringers retreat to their respective domains to heal after they have sustained sufficient damage, only to attack again months later. Biology According to Tattletale’s power, the Endbringers were never human and have no vulnerable organs. Rather, the Endbringers appear to be made out of some type of a crystalline material. In addition, they consist of about 200 layers in the main body and 33 in the limbs, each one approximately twice as hard as the previous one. These layers surround its core, the only part of its body that is actually vital. An Endbringer's skin is "hard as aluminum alloy, but flexible"; and its strength, toughness, and healing factor increase exponentially. 3% deeper in toward core of arms, legs, claws, tail, or .5% in toward core of head, trunk, neck, tissues are hard as steel. The tensile strength of the material roughly doubles with each layer, every 0.5% of the way towards the center of his body and every 3% of the way toward the center of their extremities; Wildbow has confirmed Wildbow on redditWildbow on reddit (again) that "extremities would take 30 trillion atmospheres of pressure to damage." The core of an Endbringer would require around five hundred and sixty novemdecilliondefinition of novemdecillion MPA of pressure; in practice, only parahumans capable of breaking the laws of physics can seriously harm an Endbringer.Who would Win?:JLA vs. Endbringers However, a concentrated attack with enough force to destroy the surface of a planet would be sufficient at killing an Endbringer in one shot.The whole "planet-busting beam" was a translation error. All it really meant was that it would destroy all life on the surface. Punch that counters said beam & strikes like that one did is still good enough. - Wildbow Comment on Reddit While even an attack of that magnitude would not destroy all layers of the Endbringer body, enough energy to obliterate it instantly would be transmitted into the core, resulting in a 'definite kill'. In theory String Theory's Driver weapons pose a significant threat to the Endbringers. As a consequence they carefully plan their appearances as to eliminate any possibility of facing her in combat.Not going to happen in any incarnation of the Wormverse, or Behemoth would be built stronger to counteract (Or, as in the case of String Theory, Endbringer cooperation/timing would keep her from ever being able to set up a proper hit). - Wildbow Comment on Reddit Due to their density, Endbringers are immune to most teleporters. They count as living matter for the purposes of the Manton Effect.He can’t be teleported. Too dense for most people who teleport living things. - Discussion on Extermination 8.4Discussion on Extermination 8.4Endbringer cores employ space-warping that interferes with some powers.Wildbow on reddit yet again When they take damage they leak a thick ichor-like substance, suggesting a non-standard cardiac system. Their nervous system is also foreign enough to prevent body control powers from working. They regenerate quickly as well, even in the middle of a battle. The deeper layers regenerate faster because the material from the intact layers expands to fill in any damaged or missing areas. Known Endbringers Behemoth Behemoth — also known as "Hadhayosh" and "Prathama" — was the first Endbringer to appear, making its first appearance in the Marun Field of Iran on December 13, 1992Interlude 24.x. It has the ability to manipulate multiple forms of energy (electrical, thermal, kinetic, and etc.) while bypassing the Manton Effect. Because of this, it gained a reputation as the 'hero killer,' possessing a high body count at short range. Leviathan Leviathan — also known as "Jormungand" or "Jörmungandr" — appeared in Oslo, Norway on June 9, 1996.Cast (spoiler-free) It has macro-hydrokinesis, speed, and a water "afterimage" that follows behind it and moves as fast as Leviathan itself. It was known for causing immense environmental damage, devastating areas such as Newfoundland and Kyushu to the point of uninhabitability. Simurgh The Simurgh — also known as "Ziz" — appeared in Lausanne, Switzerland on December 30, 2002. It has psionic abilities, precognition, and the ability to draw on Tinker powers around it in order to build its own Tinker devices. The Simurgh is known to adjust the events in places it attacks to set up the survivors to be "walking disasters" that happen days, months, or even years after. Affected areas were quarantined to try and mitigate these effects, such as in the case of Madison, Wisconsin. Timeline of Attacks History The first Endbringer, Behemoth, appeared in 1992 in the Marun oil field of Iran, beginning a series of attacks at various locations worldwide, spaced out by several months. The appearance of Behemoth was a major factor towards the creation of the PRT, which labelled the Endbringer as Case 2 in their case files.Case two was Behemoth, his rise had incited the creation of the PRT. ... The first cases had inspired things, major functions and interests. Committees had been formed and those committees had become something. Even though a whole chunk of the early ones were minor or fabrications in the end, the virus theory included, they’d led to things like a dedicated parahuman science department. For the Quattuorvirate, the presence of Behemoth, as well as the potential for future capes of his caliber, was also a major motivating factor for the formation of their team and the continued work of Cauldron.“The point we’re getting around to,” Alexandria spoke, “Is that even if the Doctor can get better results with time and effort, the explosion in the natural parahuman population is inevitably going to produce an individual with powers that outstrip our own.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15 Over the next several years, the Endbringer attacks continued to escalate. Once Behemoth began to be "too predictable," the second Endbringer, Leviathan, appeared in 1996, in Oslo, Norway.“It’s okay to worry,” Tecton said. He gestured towards Weaver. “Weaver said as much. They’ve got a nasty habit of escalating, in the fights themselves and in the grand scheme of things. Behemoth got too predictable, so Leviathan started to show up. We started to coordinate defenses, get the world on board to deal with them, Simurgh comes.” “And now we killed one, so how do they escalate from there?” Grace asked. “It’s a concern,” Tecton said, “And it’s one that people all around the world are going to be discussing. Rely on them. Don’t take the full weight of the world onto your shoulders. We fought, you guys made a good show of it,” Tecton said. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.y Worldwide defense efforts began to coordinate forces against Endbringer attacks; apparently in response to these efforts, in 2002, the third Endbringer, the Simurgh, made her first appearance, appearing docile at first before attacking and revealing herself to be an Endbringer."It’s what happened in… what was that place called? Lausanne? Switzerland. She showed up, and nobody wanted to pick a fight with her, and they were curious, so they studied her, and tried to communicate with her. Tons of people gathered. Then she… sang? Screamed? Whatever this is. There was chaos, people didn’t know what was happening, so they weren’t able to evacuate that well. Roads clogged. And then they started flipping out...." - Excerpt from Migration 17.3 The three Endbringers continued their worldwide attacks over the next decade, creating immense destruction. An attack from Leviathan on Newfoundland sunk the entire island, killing the tinker Andrew Richter, whose creation Dragon later joined the GuildInterlude 10.5; a separate attack from Leviathan sunk the island of Kyushu, despite resistance from Lung.Interlude 22.y The benevolent tinker Sphere was turned into future Slaughterhouse Nine member Mannequin by an attack from the Simurgh; another Simurgh attack on Madison, Wisconsin brought the Travelers to Earth Bet, later bringing about the Echidna.Migration Impact The Endbringers have killed countless people in their attacks and wiped out several notable heroes. They have caused demographic and political shifts and environmental degradation on a scale not seen outside natural disasters. In addition to the physical damage and loss of civilian lives, their attacks have had the effect of killing or otherwise removing parahumans who served as luminaries and leaders willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, perhaps contributing to more prevalent cynicism and hopelessness in the general population.Fantastic question, and one I’m not sure I can give a fantastic answer to. Why is that? Well, primarily, there’s the issue of trying to quantify ‘damage’. As stated in Legend’s pre-battle speech (early in arc 8) there’s almost always grievous losses but they aren’t always the same sort of losses. You have the events that left the world reeling: Lausanne, Hawaii, Kyushu, Newfoundland, Moscow, Sydney. The attacks that left major areas uninhabitable or unrecoverable, with wide-reaching effects on the rest of the country/region/world. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu. But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet. Do you factor that last point into the damage as well? Lung comes to Brockton Bay in part because of the booming population of Asian immigrants (which hasn’t yet set down roots). Bakuda was born to a Westerner mother and Immigrant father. Do you count the damage they’ve done? Ditto for Mannequin and the Simurgh. But that’s only the major hits, the broad strokes of the brush and all the repercussions/spatter that follows from that. Attacks end in other ways, for example. Legend mentions mass loss of life. There’s economic damage that follows from that, disease and explosions in the population of vermin when a quarter million people die in a concentrated area. There’s the deaths of countless heroes, and how that biases things further towards the general villain population. If the selfless throw their lives away for the greater good and it’s primarily the selfish (or the very powerful) who are left, how does that skew things? And I should stress that weak points aren’t necessarily just areas which are geographically vulnerable. There’s places where there’s ongoing conflict (like we might point to the middle east over the past decade), places where it takes little effort on the part of the Endbringer to deal maximum devastation (ie. a nuclear power plant, military bases) and spots where a great many resources are invested (be they great minds collected in one place or major projects like Dr. Gramme’s major projects in trying to save the world). Did anyone else catch the mention of the water crisis? Leviathan isn’t always attacking cities, and the world has only so much accessible freshwater. I digress. To answer your question in the general sense? Relatively few places have been hit as hard as the major examples listed above. But figure this has been going on for 20ish years. Behemoth shows up in the early 90’s, attacking once a year, roughly (twice in 1994), Leviathan shows up in the mid 90’s (now we’re up to 2-3 Endbringer attacks a year), and Simurgh comes in just after the turn of the century (now 3-4). I mentioned in a comment during the Endbringer arc, but I said something like ‘Behemoth is the cape-killer and Leviathan levels cities’. Figure each Endbringer has attacked 16 to 20 times so far, account for the bias towards killing capes (Behemoth) vs. wiping out landscapes (Leviathan) and that Brockton Bay is pretty middle-of-the-road for the kind of aftermath you see, and maybe you can make an estimate. Ballparking it? 8 or 9 Endbringer attacks in America over 20 years. - Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.5 Conversely, without the Endbringers there would be fewer parahumans than there would otherwise be, or a coordinated Cape community.Pandemonious Ivy ... 9) Are there any internationally known capes of the beneficent variety, besides Scion, that aren’t affiliated with a group? Wildbow: ... 9) Not really, unless you count, say, a European cape in a geographical region with lots of individual, smaller countries as being ‘internationally known’. It’s a result of the Endbringers, related but not directly linked to the Protectorate. It’s not feasible/economical/efficient to contact a bunch of big-name solo operatives in a time of crisis and arrange to bring them to a specific location, so they either band together/gather others under them and fall in line with the basic preparations that have been set in place, or they fall by the wayside. - Comment by Wildbow on Imago 21.1Shadow 5.10 Fanart Gallery endbringers_by_imskeptical-d8vadoc.jpg|''Image by ImSkepticap on Deviantart''|link=http://fav.me/d8vadoc worm___endbringer_leviathan_by_sandara-d9yuupd.jpg|''Leviathan by sandara on Deviantart''|link=http://fav.me/d9yuupd Behemoth by sandara.jpg|''Behemoth V Eidolon by sandara on Deviantart''|link=http://fav.me/d9n1huj The Simurgh by sandara.jpg|''The Simurgh by sandara on Deviantart''|link=http://fav.me/d9nzjkl Site Navigation Category:Terminology Category:Endbringers Category:Groups and Organizations Category:Villains Category:S-Class Threats